{"id":2129164,"date":"2026-09-04T22:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2129164"},"modified":"2026-09-04T22:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:56:11","slug":"el-museo-del-barrio-and-aspen-conexion-look-at-the-rise-of-latinx-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2129164","title":{"rendered":"El Museo del Barrio and Aspen Conexi\u00f3n Look at the Rise of Latinx Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/05122026AspenConexionElMuseoPeogramKNDFotos15.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tThis spring, El Museo del Barrio and Aspen Conexi\u00f3n hosted \u201cThe Rise of the U.S. Latino Art Market: Lessons from Latin America,\u201d a half-day symposium in El Museo\u2019s iconic Teatro space.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe event brought together artists, curators, museum directors, market insiders, and more to discuss the most pressing issues facing Latinx art in the art world and how to continue to grow its infrastructure. (ARTnews<\/em> served as the media sponsor.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe idea for the event was dreamed up by Aspen Conexi\u00f3n, a division of the Aspen Institute focused on the Latinx community. Previously called Latinos & Society, it was founded, according to executive director Pilar Frank O\u2019Leary, \u201caround a simple but important idea that Latino impact in the United States is not only a domestic story but a hemispheric one across business, culture, finance, sports, and the arts. Latino communities are shaping markets, influencing global demand and redefine how we think about economic growth and cultural power across the Americas and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her introductory remarks, El Museo board chair Karla Harwich described the increased visibility that US Latinx artists are receiving as \u201ca profound cultural shift\u201d but \u201cthat there is still significant work to be done to ensure that this influence is matched by sustained institutional, equitable market investment, and long-term infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe questions we are exploring feel both urgent and long overdue,\u201d Harwich said. \u201cThis is precisely why today matters.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are gathering at a moment when Latino culture is increasingly redefining the American and the global mainstream,\u201d Frank O\u2019Leary added, calling it \u201cthe Bad Bunny era.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEl Museo executive director Patrick Charpenel set the stage with one of the guiding questions for the day: \u201cAt El Museo del Barrio, we think deeply about how to translate cultural moments into structural change. What does it take to move from moments of visibility to lasting recognition?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the key points of the afternoon focused on how we could learn from the success of Latin American art both on the market and institutionally over the past two decades. \u201cThe rise of Latin American art over the past two decades did not happen by accident. It was built intentionally, through institutions, collectors, galleries, fairs, and sustained investment over time,\u201d Aspen Conexi\u00f3n managing director Diego Deleersnyder said. Latinx art, on the other hand, is \u201cstill in an earlier chapter of that story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA case study came in the form of a presentation titled \u201cBuilding the Market: Latin American Art Fairs in Focus\u201d by Diego Costa Peuser, the founder and global director of the Pinta Group, which stages numerous fairs and art weeks around Latin America and the US. Costa Peuser detailed the strategies that Pinta has taken, which includes a recent branch out to art weeks in different cities, like in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Panama City, to highlight the individual art scenes there. He concluded by saying, \u201cIn short, we understand that the growth of Latin American art does not occur spontaneously, but from sustained work.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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View of the 2026 convening \u201cThe Rise of the U.S. Latino Art Market: Lessons from Latin America,\u201d at El Museo del Barrio.<\/span>Courtesy Aspen Conexi\u00f3n<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe first panel, titled \u201cLatin American and Latino Art in the U.S. Market: Galleries, Collectors, and Museums,\u201d paired adviser Gabriela Palmieri, artist Emilio Perez, and Sotheby\u2019s Latin American specialist Emily C. Nice, moderated by the Aspen Institute\u2019s Danielle Baussan.<\/p>\n

\n\tPalmieri began by noting that even in the secondary market, Latin American artists are still rising. For example, she pointed to Leonora Carrington\u2019s auction record being reset twice in two years: first at $3.3 million in 2022 and then a whopping $25.8 million in 2024. Institutionally, she pointed out how Wifredo Lam\u2019s masterpiece The Jungle <\/em>(1942\u201443) had long hung by the elevators at the Museum of Modern Art; last fall it received pride of place in the artist\u2019s MoMA retrospective.<\/p>\n

\n\tNice gave additional context about how Sotheby\u2019s began holding Latin American art auctions after a specialist\u2019s trip to Mexico in 1977. Both Carrington records were set at Sotheby\u2019s, while Frida Kahlo\u2019s El Sue\u00f1o (La cama)<\/em> reset the record for the most expensive Latin American artwork when it sold at the auction house for $54.7 million in November 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll of this is \u201csomething to get excited about,\u201d Palmieri said, adding, \u201cContext is key, placement is seminal, and excitement is real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPerez, whose work is currently featured in \u201cLet Us Gather in a Flourishing Way,\u201d a survey of contemporary Latinx painting, said he wanted to join the day\u2019s convening because he hasn\u2019t always been included in conversations like this one. \u201c<\/em>Given my background, of course, I\u2019m always going to be Latino\u2014that\u2019s who I see when I look in the mirror in the morning,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when it comes to how the work is perceived, it really has so much to do with nuance. \u2026 As an artist, my interest [focuses on] being able to connect with a much broader audience, and sometimes I find labels to be somewhat of a constraint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added, \u201cFor any artist, the important thing is showing up every day, and when those opportunities happen, when those doors open, you have to walk through them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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View of the 2026 convening \u201cThe Rise of the U.S. Latino Art Market: Lessons from Latin America,\u201d at El Museo del Barrio.<\/span>Courtesy Aspen Conexi\u00f3n<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe day\u2019s second panel, which I moderated, served as a rebuttal of sorts to the previous one. Titled \u201cDecolonizing the Art System: Visibility and Invisibility in Latin American and Latino Art,\u201d it included Silvia Cubi\u00f1\u00e1, executive director and chief curator of the Bass Museum of Art in Miami; Irene Gelfman, global curator for the Pinta Group; Patricia Hanna, director of the Jorge M. P\u00e9rez Collection and El Espacio 23; and Susanna V. Temkin, El Museo\u2019s interim chief curator.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe talk a lot about the market, sales, record sales, and these works entering collections,\u201d Hanna said, \u201cbut these works need to be seen, so how do people even know they exist if they don\u2019t go to institutions and museums?\u201d One approach is for El Espacio 23, founded by collectors Darlene and Jorge M. P\u00e9rez, to show the works in an annual exhibition, a must-see during Art Basel Miami Beach. \u201cOur approach in terms of visibility is to really insert these artists into a more global conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother way, Temkin offered, is through exhibitions like El Museo\u2019s La Trienal, which relaunched in 2021. Before joining El Museo, she worked as a Latin Americanist and assistant curator at the Americas Society. \u201cIt was only after being a part of exhibitions here that I realized what a platform El Museo in particular can be for the visibility of Latin American and Latino artists,\u201d she said. \u201cShortly after the first Trienal, we witnessed [some featured artists\u2019] work finally being acquired by major institutions.\u201d (Hanna noted that the P\u00e9rez collection had acquired works from La Trienal.)<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile looking to Latin America can provide one path, Cubi\u00f1\u00e1 cautioned against relying too much on that being the road map. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of an unfair comparison,\u201d she said, noting, first and foremost, the population size is tenfold: Latin America and the Caribbean at roughly 673 million while the US Latinx population at 68 million. She added that each country also has its own dedicated ecosystem of museums, galleries, and collectors. \u201cCreating that [infrastructure]\u2014which El Museo del Barrio does so well, and I think all of us try a little bit to\u2014do is really important and the way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe day\u2019s keynote speech was delivered by E. Carmen Ramos, chief curatorial and conservation officer of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Drawing on her decades of experience as a curator, Ramos said, \u201cI bring lived experience grounded in the belief that equal opportunity, curiosity, pride, and joy can help advance Latinx art in the present and future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe then clarified that there is still much work to be done. \u201cOur field, while undoubtedly better than in the not-too-distant past, still fails to fully recognize the realities facing many Latinx artists and institutions\u2014their profound underrepresentation and their trailblazing leadership remain widely overlooked and underknown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRamos added that galleries, collectors, and critics are \u201cessential partners\u201d to curators and institutions like El Museo in these efforts. \u201cI hope we leave today with a renewed sense of responsibility and possibility,\u201d she said. \u201cThe stories we revisited, the artists we uplifted, the institutions we recognized\u2014all reminders that progress is never incidental. It is built over the long haul through conviction, collaboration, and the courage to imagine something better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tConvenings like this one, Aspen Conexi\u00f3n\u2019s Deleersnyder said in his closing remarks, show that \u201cthe talent is here, the cultural influence is undeniable, the demographic and economic momentum is significant,\u201d and aim to help grow the infrastructure for Latinx art. \u201cWe hope today is not the end of a conversation, but the beginning of many more\u2014across institutions, across markets, and across borders.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/05122026AspenConexionElMuseoPeogramKNDFotos15.jpg?w=1024″] This spring, El Museo del Barrio and Aspen Conexi\u00f3n hosted \u201cThe Rise of the U.S. Latino Art Market: Lessons from Latin America,\u201d a half-day symposium in El Museo\u2019s iconic Teatro space. The event brought together artists, curators, museum directors, market insiders, and more to discuss the most pressing issues facing Latinx art […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2129164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2129164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2129164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2129164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2129164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}